Promoting and/or evading change: the role of student-staff partnerships in staff teaching development

ABSTRACT

While a large body of research considers factors enabling or constraining academic development in colleges and universities, comparatively little scholarship has considered the roles students might play in supporting positive change in staff teaching practices. This article explores one potential avenue by which such change might play out, considering the extent to which participation in a student-staff partnership programme supported by a central teaching and learning institute might encourage shifts in staff teaching. Drawing on data gathered via focus groups and online reflective prompts, we find that participating in pedagogical partnership can support a range of developments in staff teaching practices, though these changes might not always be pronounced or uniformly positive. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.     

Teaching and Learning Generic Skills in Universities: The case of 'sociology' in a teacher education programme

The paper examines the links between a recent focus in Australian universities on 'generic skills' or 'graduate qualities', and national employment policies directed at developing employment-related 'key competencies'. It examines the attempt by a team of teacher educators in Australia to develop curricula that would meet the goals of national workplace policy initiatives, while retaining the traditional university concern of teaching critical evaluation of information and social practice. The specific example is the teaching of sociology within a teacher education programme. However, the examples and analysis offered here would be of interest to university teachers working with students in any professional degree programme where there is an expectation that students will be able to understand and apply sociological knowledge within their professional field. The project was framed within the policy context of 'meeting students' needs' .     

Teaching for Democracy in Higher Education

Britain, South Africa and Russia all have national policies that acknowledge that higher education should play a role in the development of democracy. This paper reports how a group of teaching staff in British, South African and Russian universities view the relationships between their teaching and their understandings of its democratic purposes. There are some common ways in which the relationship between teaching and democracy is understood. These point towards a concern for greater equality between teachers and learners. There is also a widely held view that globalisation may impact in ways which are counter to lecturers' educational and democratic purposes. However, the different cultures and histories of the countries heavily influence such understandings. The study suggests that professional development of university teachers might pay more attention to the democratic purposes of higher education.     

Expatriate academics and transnational teaching: the need for quality assurance and quality enhancement to go hand in hand

ABSTRACT

In the past two decades, transnational education has been increasing and so has the need for staff to teach on these programmes. This study sought the views of non-Anglophone expatriate academics teaching transnationally in Oman by means of a survey and follow-up interviews. It highlights the challenges that they face in a teaching and learning environment that is academically and culturally new to them. These challenges relate mostly to the students, as they need extensive structured guidance, and to maintaining programme quality in meeting the learning outcomes, particularly critical thinking and writing in English. Teaching adaptation and quality assurance were less challenging. Findings indicate that for a more enhanced teaching and learning environment, both the provider and host institution need to continuously invest in face-to-face professional development addressing the challenges expatriate academics experience, and that the sole focus on quality assurance by provider universities is not sufficient to create this.     

Towards a Language of Possibility: critical reflection and mentorship in initial teacher education

Abstract

This paper examines a programme which aimed at creating alternative school‐based experiences for postgraduate students following a 1‐year higher diploma of education course at the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg. The programme was premised on the belief that critical reflection is necessary for educational transformation, and that teacher educators increasingly will be expected to raise the quality of teaching in schools. The background to the Mentor Programme is described and the underlying rationale is discussed. Whilst the evidence from the study reflects mentor satisfaction at the quality and range of teaching skills developed by students during the programme, the investigators express disappointment at their lack of success in attaining critical reflection by their students. Students generally did not look critically, as they had been encouraged to do, at the institutional or societal context of their teaching. The discussion identifies three possible reasons for this, but concludes that any approach to teacher education which does not encourage teachers to reflect critically on their own educational views and on the nature of education as it is realised in the institutional setting of schools will be inherently flawed.     

A Feminist Perspective on Moral Education

Abstract

I argue that the just community approach is the best available values education programme in the high schools for meeting the primary goal of feminism, the elimination of injustices due to sexism. In order to eliminate sexism, I suggest we look beneath educational policies and practices to the social and value structures of schools as institutions. Through excerpts from interviews with students, I describe the social and value structures of a democratic community which form the basis of the just community programme.     

The curious promise of educationalising technological unemployment: What can places of learning really do about the future of work?

Abstract

University education is full of promise. Indeed universities have the capacity to create and shape, through staff and students, all kinds of enthralling ‘worlds’ and ‘new possibilities of life’. Yet students are encouraged increasingly to view universities as simply a means to an end, where neoliberal education delivers flexible skills to directly serve a certain type of capitalism. Additionally, the universal challenge of technological unemployment, alongside numerous other social issues, has become educationalised and portrayed in HE policy, as an issue to be solved by universities. The idea that more education can resolve the problem of technological unemployment is a political construction which has largely failed to deliver its promise. In this article, we look at educationalisation in hand with technologisation and we draw on a Critical Discourse Analysis of HE policies, to demonstrate the problems arising from taken for granted visions of neoliberal social development related to education, technology, and employment. To disrupt the tired visions of ‘techno-fixes’ and ‘edu-fixes’ we identify in these texts, we call for a radical re-imagining of HE policy. Instead of attributing responsibility for social change to abstract notions of education, market and technology, a new shared vision is needed where more agency is explicitly attributed to the researchers, teachers, and students who are the genuine human future of work.     

Leading the horse to the water: Teacher training for all teachers in a faculty of Health Sciences

Abstract

This paper describes a project, which aimed to develop a programme for the entire teaching staff of a faculty of health sciences, who had received initial teacher training earlier in their career. The programme was developed according to sound educational principles and was supported by the faculty board. Departments also received financial compensation for participation in the workshops. During the first two years of this programme almost 60% of the tenured teachers participated in at least one workshop. Reasons for participation and non‐participation are discussed.     

Not quite university people? Academics teaching on foundation studies programmes in New Zealand universities

ABSTRACT

In the current neoliberal environment in higher education, universities are viewed as a valuable source of income. To generate this income, universities need to attract students, and in order to do so, they need to perform well in global ranking tables. These tables are influenced to a large extent by staff research and postgraduate teaching. Foundation studies programmes (FS) do not usually have a great deal to offer in these categories and this places staff teaching on these programmes in a difficult position. This article explores the perceptions of staff teaching on FS programmes in New Zealand universities, drawing on data from semi-structured interviews with 22 lecturers from four universities. Although lip service is paid in higher education circles to the importance of widening access to university education for traditionally marginalised groups, it appears that staff teaching on FS programmes do not, on the whole, receive acknowledgement, support or reward for the work that they do. Despite their marginalised status, these lecturers are committed to helping second chance learners. However, their ability to make a positive impact on these students’ lives is limited by their lowly status in the university sector. This article discusses the insights of FS staff and considers the implications of their positioning in the university sector. It offers some suggestions as to how, in a small way, universities could address the difficulties these academics face in their attempts to widen university access.     

Enhancing research through academic staff development

Abstract

In the past few years, research has been an increasingly important focus of academic staff development, but there is little documentation of this new area of development. The purpose of this paper is to describe the evolution over four years of a programme to develop research skills. The experience of planning and implementing this programme illustrates how changes in higher education and university priorities (such as amalgamations of institutions, increased pressures on staff, increased competition between institutions for funding, and universities’ growing corporatization) have interacted with staff development objectives to shape changes in the programme's purpose, format, mode of participation, and planning approach. A collaborative approach to planning is seen to be appropriate in the current climate, maximizing sensitivity to the distinctive needs of the various faculties, departments or schools. Current scholarly discussion is recognized as providing support for a move toward collaboration and context‐sensitivity.     

Voices in Education: Politics and Teacher Education

Abstract

This research examined the legal climate regarding admissions and retention in teacher preparation programs as well as the current practices of selected programs. The study utilized legal/archival research and an on‐line survey of 27 universities. Findings indicated that the legal parameters regarding admission and retention fall under the expectations established for other types of professional training. University officials have great latitude to make professional judgments. The survey found that most institutions have formal admission and retention policies, though the admission policies are more fully developed. Many universities reported having formal policies to consider student dispositions for teaching, though no single policy is used by more than one third of the universities surveyed (most employ informal means). Conclusions include that teacher preparation programs have more legal latitude than is being employed for admission and retention decisions, and it is recommended that the field establish professional norms for retention policies and assessing student dispositions for teaching.     

Unions Come to Campus

After more than two decades of rapid growth, the Australian universities have now entered a prolonged period of “steady state”. Apart from creating new kinds of organisational strain, the steady state has also contributed towards increased trade unionism amongst both the teaching and non‐teaching staff.

In the case of the former group, a unique question arises: if a university is truly a self‐governing collegium, does this mean that the academic staff are simultaneously employers as well as employees, in the context of industrial relations.

Active unionisation in the universities may have positive as well as negative consequences. After considering these individually, the paper concludes by briefly looking at the impact of strikes in an educational institution.     

Problems of Insularity and Specialisation within British Educational Culture: the case of Development Studies

Abstract

This paper reports some experiences of teaching a university third year degree level option paper on Equal Opportunities to students on an Applied Social Studies degree programme. It examines the social context in which courses on equal opportunities have developed, issues of course design and assessment, teaching materials, and the students and their response to the course. Among the observations drawn from the first year of teaching are the importance (and difficulty) of conveying to students the variety of concepts of equal opportunities, and the need to recognise an age gap in both knowledge and also often attitudes of staff and students, which meant that younger students tended to take equal opportunities for granted, as being simply the law, while lecturers started from the perspective that equal opportunities policies had come about as a result of struggles for equality by social movements such as the Civil Rights movement in the USA, the feminist movement and the disability rights movement. Experience of teaching the course also indicated, as anticipated, the importance of maintaining academic standards of objectivity in teaching and assessment of controversial social issues. There were also important presentational issues which emerged in teaching literature critical of the operation of equal opportunities policies in practice, since this literature can be misunderstood by students to imply that equal opportunities policies are ineffective and therefore not worth maintaining and defending.     

Avoiding to fit a square peg into a round hole: a policy framework for operationalising open distance education in dual-mode universities

Abstract

Although education policies in many African countries refer to the need for distance education to widen participation in universities, they have not articulated guidelines on how they plan to develop systems and structures that will support it. The purpose of this study was to develop a policy framework specific for distance education provision in conventional universities. A two-step approach was utilised to guide the process of the development of the framework. The first step was to analyse national education policies, which provide the educational vision of the country. The second step was to analyse distance education policy frameworks in order to provide specific criteria that need to be met when providing distance education. Futures research methodology was employed to look at policy interventions with the aim of identifying probable development in education that may influence distance education practices within the conventional university context.     

Developing a Research Culture in the Further Education Sector: A case study of a work-based approach to staff development

In this paper, a research-based staff development programme at a college of Further Education is discussed for relevance to the government's continuous improvement agenda. It is argued that the programme provides tangible benefits to individual participating staff and to the College as a whole--participating staff receive accreditation at under- or postgraduate level, while the research projects they undertake on the programme contribute directly to the College's continuous development cycle. The programme is outlined, showing how flexibility and opportunities for customisation enable it to respond, not only to a wide range of staff interests, but to the College's strategic objectives as well. Specific benefits that the programme has achieved for the College are detailed and the programme's wider implications are discussed.     

STAFF DEVELOPMENT: SOME THOUGHTS ON RESPONSIBILITY

To many teaching in universities in this country, the whole idea of developing staff seems slightly absurd. After all, did we not choose to work in a university because we had already reached a position of some academic standing in our own specialisation; and surely is not the essential function of an academic to extend the boundaries of knowledge through scholarship and research? Perhaps this is too narrow a view of staff aims, but certainly it is still the widely held belief that promotion comes more readily this way. It is only recently that interest has been shown in the nature of teaching in universities. Doubts have been expressed by Bligh (1972) and others about the effectiveness of the traditionally accepted lecture approach; and attention has recently been given to small group teaching, individualised instruction, the Keller plan and other alternative methods. The emphasis placed on such methods could suggest that staff development is concerned largely with teaching‐‐yet is this not an absurdity in an environment which values mainly scholarship and research? This conflict is one of the major problems facing staff development, and solving it may‐‐to some extent‐be at the heart of the problem of responsibility

In this paper, I will look briefly at some of the early work done in universities in the field of staff development, and suggest certain important character traits needed by anyone involved in this work, before posing questions of responsibility     

Teacher education budget cuts in Romania and the US: points of contrast and comparison

Background

Budgets for teacher education programmes have been substantially reduced as a result of the global economic crisis.

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to compare the teacher education budget cutting processes and procedures for universities in Romania versus one university in the United States.

Sample

The data were collected from six Romanian universities that all have teacher education programmes. These universities represent the range of higher education quality in the country as indicated by their publication rates. Data from these universities were compared with those from the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). UNR is the flagship university in the Nevada System of Higher Education, and Nevada has been harder hit by the recent global economic crisis than any other state in the United States and cuts to teacher education there have been substantial.

Design and methods

Data about the budget cutting processes and decisions in the teacher education programmes of six Romanian universities were collected through an electronic survey. These data were compared with the processes and decisions made at the UNR.

Results

The budget cutting processes in Romania were less transparent, and involved less input from stakeholders such as faculty and staff. Most decisions were made at a higher level of authority in Romania, and cuts in Romania were more likely to be across the board rather than more strategically targeted as they were in Nevada.

Conclusions

These differences are discussed in terms of the historical legacy of structures and policies in Romania, and the resistance to reform inherent in those structures and policies.     

Mentoring the Experienced Teacher

New teachers have a structured induction programme when they first begin teaching and there are systems in place for new headteachers, but for those teachers who are moving to a new post there is often little support. This article looks at mid-career induction. It explores the formal and informal induction acculturation processes that operate and a model of mentoring new staff in a behaviour support unit where staff are working with several agencies. It identifies that opportunities for development to facilitate growth within a learning organisation can occur when the potential of newcomers is recognised.     

The application of Gestalt to organizational interventions in universities

Abstract

This paper will outline the Gestalt cycle, (Perls, 1947) used as the basis for modelling the process of Gestalt therapy and counselling. Then we will go on to describe how it (Gestalt) can be used as a way of understanding organizational processes and culture. For staff developers to be effective in influencing the organizations in which they work they have to be able to make appropriate interventions. The necessary skills and attributes required of a staff developer operating in a Gestalt role will be discussed. Gestalt offers one model that can help the staff developer decide what interventions are appropriate when and why.

The paper will then move on to look at what happens if an organization gets stuck at any point in the Gestalt cycle and what this will feel like for employees and students. We will then offer intervention strategies for moving the organization on round the cycle.

Finally we will draw some general conclusions about how staff developers have a key role in helping universities cope, manage and adapt in these times of rapid change in Higher Education.     

Using Activity Theory to inform sessional teacher development: what lessons can be learned from tutor training models?

Abstract

Sessional teachers in universities are often marginalised by their part-time status, availability for training, and invisibility within the institution’s infrastructure. Nevertheless, tutors as a subset of this group, regularly have access to some training and development. This paper presents a methodological approach for implementing the BLASST framework for sessional staff at a New Zealand university, based on a project to benchmark support for tutors. Using Activity Theory, I discuss tensions associated with developing a training programme for tutors and how such an approach can aid the development of similar models for all sessional teachers.